Microsoft concludes support for Windows 7: What You Need to Know

Microsoft support for Windows 7 is out today. By design: Microsoft has been supporting its operating system for at least a decade, split into two different types. Windows 7's successor, Windows 7, hit RTM status on July 22, 2009 and general availability on October 22, 2009. That's why Microsoft has supported Windows 7 for at least 10 years. This includes Service Pack (in March 2010) and Platform Update (in February 2013). Microsoft ended mainstream support on January 13, 2015 and now extends support on January 14, 2020.

Also, Windows 7 is a Microsoft operating system that millions of people are reluctant to upgrade. Like Windows XP users who moved Windows Vista, Windows 7 users moved Windows 8. Windows 10 only showed that the original upgrade cycle started. Another similarity to Windows XP is that although most users switch to Windows 10, most businesses still stick to Windows 7.

In September 2019, when Internet Technology Windows 10 crossed the 50% market share, Windows 7 had a market share of 30.34%. Windows 7 is slowly declining, with a market share of 26.64% last year. However, despite being one of the four computers running Windows 7, hundreds of millions of computers running the decades-old operating system have been translated.

What is the end of support

Microsoft's mainstream support includes free event support, warranty claims, security and security bug fixes, and design changes and feature requests. Extended support includes security updates only. In other words, Windows 7 is dead in Microsoft's eyes.

If you continue to use Windows 7, your computer will still work, but it may pose more security risks and more vulnerabilities to malware. Software and hardware manufacturers are less likely to create products that work with operating systems that choose to focus on more recent versions of Windows.

For more than a year, Microsoft has been warning Windows 7 users about the January 14, 2020 date. Now here it is, security updates for Windows 7 are no longer available, at least not for free. However, you can purchase Windows 7 Extended Security Update (ESU).

Regardless, Microsoft plans to start showing a new pop-up notification for Windows 7 users tomorrow. Support article from KB4530734:

This notification appears in the following Windows 7 versions: Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. If you have purchased Windows 7 ESU, your computer has joined the domain or if it is in kiosk mode, notification will not appear.

For an overview of other upcoming dates for Microsoft's desktop operating system, check out the Windows Lifecycle page. The next major end of the support date is for Windows 8.1, 10 January 2023. If you are still on Windows 7, you can go to Windows 8.1, but you must go directly to Windows 10.